Red-Haired Ash Reads

TW: hoarding disorder; PTSD, panic attacks and nightmares; mentions of war, torture, and multiple murder attempts 

Lord Alaric Valerian has a problem. His mother is visiting his castle and plans to host a ball, but she doesn’t know he has filled every room with his artistic passions. Since he is desperate, he hires a professional organizer to help him fix his mess. But she is human and Alaric isn’t prepared for how she would turn his world upside down and awaken his cold, vampire heart. 

This book caught my attention because of the beautiful cover and then I read the blurb and knew I would probably enjoy it. This is my first Holmes book, but most likely not my last. This was an enjoyable vampire romance with close proximity and fake dating. Overall, I did enjoy this book but I think the pacing of the story caused me to struggle a bit with it. While this is a fake fiance story, that part doesn’t really come into effect until almost 50 percent in this book, which with over 500 pages, that’s quite far in for a romance. I did enjoy that first half but it was a bit slow with its focus on cleaning and organizing Alaric’s castle. But I still enjoyed the story, I just wish I had known going in this was going to be a bit of a slow start. 

Winnie was an energetic and compassionate woman who really wants to help people struggling with too much stuff. She is driven by her childhood growing up in a hoarder house with her mother, who is still struggling. I really liked Winnie and her drive to help others. We see her trauma and PTSD from her childhood come into play. While I know nothing about hoarding disorder, I do think the author did a good job at showing how this is different for every person and how it affects those around them. Winnie really struggles with clutter but has built her life around being in it and fixing it, but we still see her have panic attacks and nightmares. 

Alaric, like Winnie’s mom, is a hoarder but in a different way. Alaric is over 500 years old and spends his time holed up in his castle making art. He is an extremely passionate creator but as the centuries have passed he has lost more of his castle to those passions. We see him being more receptive to cleaning and getting rid of stuff and he makes a lot of progress, but of course this doesn’t fix his hoarding tendencies completely. 

While Alaric is an old warrior, we see that he is actually a gentle soul who just wants someone to see him and not a monster. While Winnie doesn’t know he is a vampire at first, even when she finds out she still sees the true man underneath. I really enjoyed seeing these two get to know each other, play at being a couple, and realize they wanted to be together forever. Yes of course there is a lot of trauma, fear, and a murder to work through first but it was enjoyable all the same. I also really like that while we see these two have a HEA, it only happened after a lot of working through the trauma and mental illness with a therapist and friends for it to work. It felt more realistic, especially when dealing with something as debilitating as hoarding. 

Overall, I enjoyed this book and look forward to reading the next one in the series. I also plan on reading the Nevermore Bookshop Mysteries now because I really want to know more about Mina and the other NMCSBC members and their adventures solving murders. Also Mina has three husbands who are from literature, so of course I need to find out how that happens now. 

*ARC provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.*

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